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Monday, May 24th, 2010

Bettye LaVette Performs "The Word" Tonight On The Tonight Show

BETTYE LaVETTE returns to the Tonight Show this evening with a performance of the Beatles' classic "The Word," from her new album titled Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook out tomorrow on Anti- Records.

Meanwhile, critics all over are raving about the new disc:

"Ms. LaVette, 64, now rivals Aretha Franklin as her generation's most vital soul singer. She uses every scrape, shout and break in her raspy voice, with a predator's sense of timing, to seize the drama of a song. On "Interpretations," Ms. LaVette and her co-producers jettison the original arrangements. They rip away the old self-satisfaction and reach into the songs to find them grappling for love, for meaning, for consolation and for redemption." New York Times Jon Pareles

"Sometimes torchy and always gut-wrenching, her knowing rasp pushes the album onto terra firma between the blues and power pop." Entertainment Weekly K. Leander Williams

"Staggeringly powerful." Minneapolis Star Tribune Jon Bream

"That perhaps is LaVette's ultimate accomplishment on Interpretations. In tackling such iconic material, she doesn't just make them sound new and fresh. She makes them sound personal again, expressions of individual yearning rather than tokens of generational nostalgia." Washington Post Stephen M. Deusner